Polyvinyl Records
2004
Joan Of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain...
About This Album
Evoking Dick Cheney and Mark Twain in the title and artwork of your album screams high concept, and it's not like Joan of Arc hasn't shunned that kind of indulgence before. (It also elicits humorous notions of the fogyish Cheney settling down in his parlor to give a challenging experimental rock album a good, solid listen. Very Norman Rockwell, no?) But Tim Kinsella and friends have already done the concept angle -- done it to death, as the insular spiky changing rooms of The Gap proved. So where does that leave Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain? Well, it's an album in love with distinct verbosity, for one. Every song title is an artful arrangement in both text and sound -- "Queasy Lynn," "I Trust a Litter of Kittens Still Keeps the Colosseum." And unlike what passes for concept albums these days (we're looking at you, Coheed & Cambria), Kinsella, Sam Zurick, Nate Kinsella, Bobby Burg, and their host of horn- and keys-playing, voice-lending pals have designed this latest Joan missive as a freestanding torso refreshingly free of meddling tendrils. The title track makes simple voice repetition and processed power-drill noises scarier than watching The Shining's climax on repeat.
Track List (try tracks 2,4,5,8 and 15)

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